IS Virus:Episode 7 -Isolation-
by tonbonkittybon
Summary: Finally, a cooldown period to recharge everyone's senses! Kinda. With half of Phantom Task gone, and the worst possible pairings on both sides possible, it's now up to each team to outlast the clock and outwit each other, just to survive. And with the entire country on alert, everyone will be after them. But, as the old man always said, "Cover up one hole, two more pop out."
1. Lost in the First Night

_Episode 7: Isolation_

 _Part 1: Lost in the First Night  
_

For two consecutive days, Squall kept driving under the cover of the city lights. There was no looking back this time, lest she risk an unwanted sighting. Through the vast highways and underpopulated fields, she kept driving until she made it into the Gunma prefecture, a red light district.

She slowed down once the freeway ended. At the traffic stops, she saw a parade of women marching from the Race bar. Bad news for any man traveling to Mt. Akina. "We have to remain silent..." she said to herself as she quietly drove to a nearby inn and bought a two week stay, long enough for them to recover and get out before anyone notices. She stuffed the renegade in a giant suitcase and hauled everything out of the car.

She looked up at the twilight sky, now lessening its celestial glow to prepare for the morning bloom. They were supposed to be finished before the twilight twinkled. Now, they've run the risk of immediate shutdown. Madoka and Autumn stayed behind until they were positive that no one can chase them, but their ISs have been exhausted. "I'll have to trust that they've made it out alright..." she said as she kicked the door open and threw everything in. Then, she shut the blinds so that no one can see what's going to happen.

Finally out of the limelight of society, she can finally breathe some fresh air. Well, almost. This is a motel after all. The faint stench of Girls' Night Out can still be detected, but it's not enough to sting her nose. She set some candle air fresheners on the wooden dressers. She then unloaded her suitcases and put up her belongings (what little survived)

-before finally reaching for the biggest suitcase. She slammed it on the bed and braced herself as she unlocked it.

"YOW! YO!" Sokoto shrieked and flailed in an effort to move his body before realizing that there was no noise, "Uh, what the...wuh..."

Squall peeked from behind a lampstand, "You couldn't give us a moment's notice, could you?..."

"Ugh...what the helling f***..." Sokoto rubbed his head as he surveyed the room, "Coulda sworn I was knocking some bambi wannabee..." His brain needs a minute to turn on, I apologize.

Squall noticed that too, "Since when did you learn to cuss like a sailor?" she raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, I've been all over the world in the short amount of time I've wasted away on this planet!" he wagged his hand at her.

"What, you think you're some alien menace now?" she smirked at him in the eyes, "Please, I've met hulking women more intimidating than you."

"And yet, I've deceived more than I can count!" he winked and pointed, "So, how do you know I'm not trying to deceive you right now?"

She uncovered her waist, "I have a gun."

"Pbbtt-really?" he scoffed, "That's the best you can d-AAAAAGHH..." before he realized how much pain he was in when he shrugged. His entire body had been completely wrecked by the Annihilator battle. Even the slightest movement of his back could be enough to paralyze him.

"Hey, hey, hey! Easy! Easy!" she steadied him back into the case, pushing her hand against his chest to prevent him from moving, "Don't move just yet."

"Ahhhhh..." he winced as he was pushed back into the case, "I ain't felt this much pain since New York City..."

"What happened-where?" she froze.

"Jumped off a skyscraper, grabbed onto an airplane banner, dragged it down to the streets-"

"What?!" she pushed extra hard on him, "Were you doing this whole time?!"

He braced the pain as he struggled to speak, "Ah, do I gotta go through that bit again?..."

She bumped his head and knocked him out, "Nope, just...just let me take a bath, ok?..."

"Huh...well, balls to you..." He slurred as he was once again sent to Dreamland.

Squall could not keep her mind straight during her bath. Every body part she scrubbed brought flashbacks of every person she killed, every family impacted by her squad. But why? She was just as merciless back then as she is now. Or is she? Autumn thoroughly disciplined her via sexual torture for who knows how long. Maybe now it's finally starting to set in. Everything you do has consequences, and this was no exception, due to the numerous scars all over her body, some reaching all across her body. Her most delicate areas have been severely tampered with, and she cannot shake the feeling of being constantly watched, even though they have nothing for communicating. Unless there's a hidden transceiver somewhere within her. That way, every word she said would be broadcast, not only risking detection and interference from the other signals in the area, but also the end of all four lives.

She reached for her healing serum and dipped it in, hoping that the soothing feeling with make her forget. Instead, it stung her body with each pain it tried to numb. And here's her paranoid state, which she has been feeling since the reunion. She felt it with Autumn, and she mildly felt it with M.

But with the renegade...why is he so open to three leaders of a terrorist organization?

"Uh, Squall?" Crud, he woke up, "I, uh...I gots to lets!"

She checked the clock, "S***, the hour's gone!" She grabbed a few towels and rushed out, "Ok, dude! Bath time."

"Sure. Just let me-" Oh, dear. This time, he can't feel a thing.

"Uh..." she just stood there as the case was now inhabited by a familiar smell.

"Help...me?..." he squeaked.

She grabbed the whole case and dragged it to the bath. Then, she dunked it in, "Here! This oughta perk you up...A LOT!" She swiped the suitcase back, causing him to spin multiple times before resurfacing his head above water.

He looked at her intently, "Gee...Thanks." And he laid his head back.

"Oh, and dip this in while you're bathing." Squall let out a drop of the healing serum into the bath, and it began working on Sokoto. She shut the door and left him to his own devices.

"Ok...I've seen everything now..." What are his "devices" called, anyway? faux-OCD Turrets? "angry ladies, exploded buildings, butterflies and moths actually cooperating with each other, what's next?! Waltzing into a nest of ravens and keeping quiet about it?!"

He was thinking about the past events that have unfolded within the past...MONTH. So much could happen, and he was the direct link. He was able to subdue countless IS pilots, anger elected and authoritarian officials, and make the most feared women in modern history scream uncle or their angry...all without the Silver Streamline. And boy did those feels come back to him.

"Oh, you had to say that..." he muttered as he felt the bath soothe every part of his body, all the while reminding him of the best week he ever had.

"We're doomed, I tell you," he said, while still clinging onto the hope that he will see Silvia again, "We are so screwed."

After fifteen minutes of wallowing in his own thoughts, he was able to stand on his own two feet once more, but he was still incapable of a prolonged fight. He drained the water and dried himself. "Hey, it doesn't hurt anymore! It doesn't-AY..." Yes, it does. The serum isn't magic; it's science. It still needs to rest inside you. He dried his hair and looked in the mirror. It's amazing how much fun you can still have before losing it all. He decided to fool around with the scissors and make himself a new hairdo. One that hopefully might not attract so much negative attention.

It came out...not too bad. "Well, hello there, kiddo! How do you do?" It wasn't a perfect cut, but at least he looked like someone else. Except the eye lenses and hair coloring had been washed away, so he just looks like a tomboy with his body physique. He smiled and ran out to meet Squall.

"Hey, it's ready for y-HOLY!" he stopped short of her...ruined body, stuck on the bed without protection.

"Wh...what?..." she covered her chest, embarrased and afraid to look into his eyes.

"Dude, your...your...WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?!" He saw everything. Scars, burn marks, scratches in places where they shouldn't be, her earrings has been ripped out, and her nipples were ripped clean off!

"Oh...that..." she sighed as she slowly reached for her towel to try and cover up her top.

Though, he could only focus on the imperfect areas of her body,"Wha...Whaddayamean, "Oh, that."! I thought this was supposed to be a safe haven!"

"No..." she looked away, "I can never be safe..."

"Come on! What's going on here?! I thought you three were on pretty good terms with each other!" he closed in on her face and stately asked, "Wh-what's going on, lady?! What aren't you telling me?!"

She closed her eyes in reaction to his close up. When she opened them again, she could see a sense of absolute in him, as if he really doesn't know what happened between them, and he might not care. She looked into his eyes a little deeper. Everything was so pure. Beautiful blue eyes that haven't been tainted by the true horrors of this world...

"You really wanna know?.." she asked, unsure if she wanted to go through with her backstory, but he insisted. "Ok..." she threw her towel away and prepared a place for him on the bed, "Sit. I'll tell you everything you need to know."

And tell, she did. Squall narrated everything, from her time in the old Phantom Task, to her most recent encounters with the other pilots, including the Third Mondo Grosso, where she sacrificed an ally in order to escape, all the way up to now. With each word spoken, she crept ever closer to breaking down. And he just sat there, taking in every single detail that was spilled from her story, wondering what it was like to have been in Squall, and Autumn's IS unit, to have been the one forced to make a difficult life-or-death call.

When she was finished, she sat up and met him side by side, "You see it now, don't you? Everything has a price. Everything you do has a debt you must pay," she put her hands behind her back to show all, "and as you can see, I'm nowhere close to paying mine."

Sokoto folded his arms and closed his eyes to better process the cause of her so-called 'punishment', "So, you shoved her in the face of the blast just to save your own hide, huh?"

She wept, "Yeah...I don't blame you if you'd hate me for it..."

He looked at her body once more, "Actually, judging from..."

"What about?..." she backed away a little bit, scared of what might come out of his mouth.

Instead, he nodded, "Yeah, for over two years, I'd say that's punishment enough."

"Seriously?..." she asked bewilderingly, "You really think so?"

"Yeah. I mean, look at you! You've had your body mutila-oh..." He tried to point out her severely scarred body, but then he noticed that his body has plenty of scars, too. Even more than hers. So, he tried another point, "I mean, you were seriously scarred by-oh..." Nope, they both had life-changing events that mentally altered their psyche irreversible. Come on, what's something they DON'T have in common, "Well, you...mind, mental..." He's running through all possible scenarios in his mind, then checking them against his and her backstories.

"Yeah?" she leaned in closer.

"Umm..." He closed his eyes and arms, trying to think of any differences in their stories.

"Well?..." she leaned in even closer to find out what he's trying to think.

He went a full minute before throwing in the towel, "Geez! I can't find something to talk about! The only thing different about us is age, gender, and body type!"

She backed away, "What are you saying?..."

"What am I say-LOOK AT US!" he stood up and flailed his arms around, "We've both been scarred for life! We've both sustained enough scars to make us living zombies! We both wandered the world trying to find an answer to our lives' questions! We both have yellow hair, for corn's sake!"

And then she yanked his head to meet her wrath, "Oh, that's the new name for natural hair colors, huh?" She pushed him aside to make a riff of his own comments, "Let's just call blue hair...water, and brown hair...dookie fresh! How about that?!"

He was hopping around, pointing to random stuff in the room, "Jump around and fling blood all over the city! Redheads, blood heads, what's the difference!"

And then, they kept this pointless argument going for 15 minutes, flinging words about hair, clothes, and even harmless kitchen utensils. And right when they both mentioned something about action figures, they stopped and stared at each other, just now realizing what they did during all that nonsensical nonsensing. They scratched their heads and slowly brushed it off,

"Uh, heheh...hehehehehehahahahahahahAHAHAHAHAHAHAH-BWAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA~~~~" Yeah, absolutely no one could've guessed that the could carry on an argument like that...if you can even call it an argument. They laughed it off as if they just came out of a haunted house of horrible weirdness (well, they got a week to blow off; why not?!) "Ahahaha...Hahhhhhhh..."

Finally, they took a large breath of semi-fresh air and exhaled on sync. They stared at the ceiling for a second, then looked at each others' eye and giggled. Squall inhaled once more and, "Whew!" stretched her body, "Oh, Sokoto. What has this world come to?..."

"I'll tell ya what!" Sokoto tried to stretch his body, "I feel like I-AAAAAAAAAGH!" He only recovered enough for basic movement, not stress causing/relief.

And without thinking, "Oh, geez," Squall turned him on his stomach and soothed his muscles and eased his bodily tension, "Don't overdo it right out of the bath..." by massaging his tight spots. She was so intent on relaxing him that she didn't even notice what she was doing.

Sokoto felt...an odd feeling of satisfaction. Like everything was just right in the world. If only it wasn't for her bailing him out of the compound earlier, "Uh...thanks for...for saving me..."

Squall froze and looked at what she was doing, but she didn't take his hands off him, "Um...sure thing..." She was supposed to relax him, but just the mere sensation of feeling around his shoulders was relaxing her. She didn't know what to do at first. But then a thought crossed her mind. Yes, there's no way back if she goes through with it. But then again, it's not like she has a lot of life left...

She closed her eyes. Her choice has been made... "Hey..."

"Yeah?" He felt a little uneasy, but he is powerless to do anything.

She gently stroked his back, "Close your eyes..."

"What...are you...going to do to me?..." And his tension levels are rising.

"What?" she whispered in her ear and wrapped her arms around him, "You don't trust me?"

He can't tell if she's lying or not anymore! He winced at whatever she was doing.

"Easy, kiddo." She eased him on his back, while cuddling his hair. They were now in full view of each other. His eyes were still closed, but he was at ease now. It's now or never for Squall. She leaned in and moved closer to him. And then she...did this:

"Everything I'm going to do to you...if you want to do it too, it can only be done with the people you truly care about...people with whom you have a deep, personal connection with...Understand?..."

"Mmhmm..."

"Good...now, relax..."

"Ok...ready..."

"Let's go..."

And then, a kiss...

- **One day later** -

The opposite of what just happened.

The regions of Kyushu, Shikoku, Chuubu, Chuugoku, and Kansai have been blasting a certain news article every hour, on the hour...because it was a lot worse than the renegade:

"Two helpers of the renegade have just been apprehended, and they have been confirmed as IS pilots and former members of the now vanquished Phantom Task Organization. It is unknown whether their resurgence is of any present danger to any Infinite Stratos related affairs, but we can confirm that they were forced into doing the will of the renegade, by the renegade. They were last seen attacking an IS development compound off the southern coast of the Kansai region, and have since then fled the scene. They both managed to subdue the German forces and the Chinese envoy, but have since been caught by leftovers of the Japanese ground forces, who have been patrolling the country since the surfacing of the renegade~~~"

All five regions were reacting to this announcement, in public, and in private. A sense of hysteria can be felt wherever anyone went, even in the northern most regions, which only got the announcement via social media and started preparing for the worst when they saw that one of the captured pilots was born in Sapporo, Hokkaido. But if she was with him, they thought, then that must mean the renegade is still at large, but is stuck near the area of last impact. The south is stuck in a state of panic, as countless authorities began rallying the country on a massive "monkey-hunt" for the renegade, while the north is starting to hold press conferences concerning the whereabouts and capture of the renegade.

This didn't bode well at all with anyone back at IS Academy. The capture of two rouges by local authorities will mean questions and riots, possibly demands for the Academy to be taken down. The comms area was stunned and speechless.

"Not good...not good at all," Houki commented.

"What're we gonna do?" Honne screamed, "We can't go in at all and help them!"

Tabane snuck up and scared them, "Relax. We've got four pilots, five windbags, and a giant f***-you army hot on their tail," she wagged her hand, "It's only a matter of time before the renegade is captured once more." Then, suddenly, her rage erupted, and she crushed one of her crutches, "AND THEN, I CAN FINALLY GET MY REVENGE ON THIS LITTLE WHACKO."

"Scary face part 4..." Honne whispered.

Maya came by the booth and saw what was going on, "Those reporters aren't gonna come by, are they?"

"No," Chifuyu grabbed her shoulder, "And you're gonna make sure of it."

"Uh...Orimura-sensei?..." Maya was dragged along, "What're you doing?"

They walked to the main area, and she shoved countless tools in many people. Then, they walked into the main hangar where the emergency IS unis are held. Chifuyu turned on the lights and booted up all 10 units.

"These are 4th Generation Emergency Response Units, sent over by the U.N. for terrorist attacks," she explained, "We're going to use them and dig the renegade out from under the ground."

"But," Maya wondered, "What about Ichika and-"

"NOT." Chifuyu growled, "ONE. MORE. ASS."

Maya shut up and let the work be done. After five minutes of computer mayhem, all ten units were prepped and ready to board.

"I'll stay here and oversee the reconstruction of the Academy," Chifuyu said, "You find nine more pilots to take off into the mainland and find the renegade. He was last seen at the compound, so I can't imagine him going beyond Kanto."

"But it's a matter of timing!" Maya ranted, "We are so spread out thin, and they have an entire military, air force, police force, surveillance, everything! If they catch the renegade before we do, then it's over for the IS Academy! It'll be all-out war for all of East Asia!"

"So?" Chifuyu glared, "Get the renegade before they do. I've got Alcott, Blackett, and Harfouch on the scene, so they'll help in anyway they can."

"Um...ok?" Maya nervously said as she mounted a GERU, "But wouldn't it matter if-"

Chifuyu pressed the Emergency Launch button and bounced Maya out of the hangar, high into the air. The recreation construction unit could only see someone flailing in suspended animation.

"What's she doing?"

"I don't know..."

Back in the hangar, Chifuyu called to the Chinese envoy, "Channel C29-GE0010...come in, Xingjia Liang...Liang, do you read?"

"We hear you, Orimura," a response, "and we have the entire envoy connected as well."

"This is a disgrace of unprecedented magnitude!" An officer chipped, "We cannot allow this stain to remain unwashed!"

"We must find him and make him wash it for us!" Another one, "But where could he be now?..."

"I've already got two people in his current area," Chifuyu stated, "They should be closing on the renegade, if they haven't started plumbing down their duties already..."

"Shall we contact them?" an officer asked.

"No. Wait for him to come into your vicinity, then take him back." And with that, she cut off communication until she can cool off her head.

The Chinese envoy were investigating a robbery that happened near the compound. Someone had stolen a vehicle, but it didn't have anything of worth. Just a bunch of suitcases. They were about to track the vehicle when Chifuyu suddenly interrupted them...and hung up.

"Well, that was rude." An officer quipped.

"Shall we contact them?" Another one.

"I'm calling her now," Xingjia opened an encrypted channel.

"Major. I wasn't expecting you to-"

"Not now. Did you get the announcement?"

"Yes. I'm going to lay low for a while, in case that this is merely a distraction."

"Understood."

"Anything else?"

"Yes. The data uploaded to your VT System was only partial data. There is still a wealth of information to be unlocked, but the mudblood somehow convinced the Silver Streamline to do a complete Lockout."

"Tell her, don't bother and hide it. If he can't find it, it can't be used, right? By itself, it's just a statue."

"I see. We'll remain inland until we apprehend the renegade."

"Understood." Communication terminated. Xingjia readied her radio collar, "Xia. Mei. You two make your way to Naha Prison Chambers immediately."

"Míngbáile, shàoxiào." The two officers left on motorbikes, while the others stayed behind.

"The rest of you with me," Xingjia commanded, "We're going to gather intel on the renegade's whereabouts."

"And once we do get him?" an officer asked excitedly.

Xingjia turned to the rising sun and leered the gaining light with contempt, "Simple...he's ours."

- **NAHA POLICE DEPARTMENT UNDERGROUND PRISON CHAMBERS** -

Two women, dangling in chains over a bottomless cavern spring. One wrong move, and they both fall. They have devices attached to them, preventing them from calling out their most powerful weapons.

One woman couldn't resist the total irony of the situation. She was sent in to ensure a quick getaway and kill as many as possible, only to stall for time and defend her partner to the bitter end..."Heheh...it was bound to happen sometime..."

The other twitched in anger, "'Bound to happen'-you dragged me into this!"

"Well, you wanted to stay behind, too."

They both sighed...they stared long and hard at the abyss below...wondering if there was a way to live in the abyss...

"So...how long should we stay here?..."

"Two weeks. We have to tough it out for two weeks."

"S***...what're they gonna do to us?"

"What haven't they done to us? THAT'S the shorter answer..."


	2. Cooldown

_Part 2: Cooldown_

Five days later, the media went crazy. Stories of Phantom Task resurfacing, and how the renegade is kidnapping innocent little girls to do his dirty work under the namesake, and tabloids and editorials with even more sensational material flinging about. The populus was at a continuous uproar, especially with the now drunken Alcott leading the charge thank you Chifuyu for forcing her off the deep end I can't wait to see your tirade of pissing liquor all over the-

"KANZASHI!"

"Wha-huh? Uh..."

"Your shift's over!" The lead scientist said, after enduring 5 consecutive days of nonstop development.

Kanzashi stretched for a good five minutes before grabbing her bag, "Ok, I'm going now!"

"Alright! See you later, Kanzashi!" the lead said, shutting down the entire floor.

"Be careful, Kan-chan!" an assistant joked, "You-know-who will bite you if given the chance!"

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Kanzashi groaned, "Don't flag down a response team when I'm in the bathroom, why don'tcha?"

She punched the front door and stormed out. She re-positioned her glasses and sighed her first giant sigh of relief in a week. Then, she sped off on her motorcycle, completely oblivious to the traffic around her as her hair caught major wind. How long has it been since she's seen the sun and the greeneries?

Not long enough, because the newspapers and media were blazing with crack stories about Phantom Task and the renegade, which, in her opinion, only serve to stir the populace into an anti-male frenzy. This, just one year after she graduated the IS Academy and abandoned her piloting to develop new IS models for the rest of the world. And sometimes, she wished that's all she did. Sometimes, she'd use her job privileges to spy on the rest of her schoolmates, and there were times when her curiosity reached its peak. Like when she tried searching for Charlotte Dunois's whereabouts, but couldn't find anything. Or when her sister's name kept popping in and out of the internet. But most of the time, it's spent on model designs, core placement, fortification, and most recently designing the first space-capable IS unit. With what they have now, it could do it, at the cost of diverting all energy normally spent on weapon operation to oxygen conversion, something the higher-ups sorely loathe.

"Ugh...'head of development' my ass...they got me pumping out ideas and modifications left and right..." she thought as she jumped off a connecting bridge and made a shortcut towards Akina Sports bar. Her wheels screeched as she slammed into someone's car at the parking lot. She dismounted as the woman whose car she scratched confronted her,

"Hey, what's your issue, lady?! Do you know how much money I spent on this thing?!"

"Don't you mean," Kanzashi back-sassed, "how many men you poisoned to get their money? 'Cuz you look like the type of woman that'll do just about anything for money."

That tore it. The woman tried to scratch Kan's eyes out, but she easily swung her over and down to the ground, pinning her shoes on her throat. And the more the woman's nails dug into her ankle, the harder she crushed her throat. Finally, the woman gave in and tapped out.

Kanzashi released her, with a warning, "Next time, keep your trashiness off the public eye."

The woman didn't bother to get up. She just laid there, trying to catch her breath. While Kanzashi walked in to the usual spot.

"Kan-chan?" the bartender asked, "Fancy seeing a regular here."

"Yeah, I'm here until this unlucky number 7 blows over," she groaned. "We just developed the prototypes for the 6th generation, and already they want us working on the 7th."

"Well, when you're a Representative Cadet," the bartender commented, "it's pretty much expected. Anything I can get to help take the pressure off?"

"The Tubthumper, please. Special mix."

"You know that comes with a three-hour grounding period, right?"

Kanzashi heard a car smash her bike into another car, "Eh, I didn't need that bike anyway."

"Ok. Coming right up." The bartender went off as Kanzashi activated the recorder chips on her hairpins. She slowly drew circles on the table with her finger while listening in on the ensuing bear fight some poor man soul found himself in. He claimed another woman smashed him into the parking lot. She said good for him because he can't drive because sexist vomit. From that point on, the conversation was inaudible.

Another conversation replaced that just in time: the renegade's cohorts being interrogated at Naha Police Department. "Ahhhh...oh, look at that. Haven't seen that in a while." She saw the police officers pleading with the prisoners to come back to their senses, and the two pilots grew more annoyed with each one-sided plea. Or technique. Even clipping parts of their flesh off, the black-haired pilot yawned, "Ah, screw it. I'm going back to sleep." And another conversation: the IS Academy, 50% reconstructed. The argument being made is that the R&D mainland facility wasn't doing enough to help with the efforts to rein in the renegade.

"Oh, yeah. Come to think of it, we've made the headlines for how many days in a row?" she questioned as she stared at the news reel, taking a slow sip for each headline having something to do about the IS Academy, "I wonder if the renegade's having as much fun as they are..."

Not exactly, kiddo. He's resting in a motel. Induced in yet another flashback-

"HELP!"

This one, however, was when he was overwhelmed by females who caught him trying to catch a yellow butterfly. It wandered into school grounds, and he paid no heed to the security guards, who had no problem putting the entire school on lockdown and throwing him into a detention room. A few hours later, he was tied up to a wooden post and stripped of his clothes. He was set to be poked continuously with rose thorns. He was staring into the sea of glaring eyes, those evil smirks, and to top it all off...

They trapped the butterfly in a jar. They rubbed it against his face to taunt him. When he squirmed and demanded that the jar be returned to him, the principal just smashed it with her bare hands. That ignited his unfruitful anger, as they kicked and stabbed him every time he looked up or exhaled, or even twitched. He endured it for 15 minutes before it looked like he was about to give way. One last look up, and he saw a giant pie sitting atop an arrogant, crooked face.

But before the pie could hit him, a bullet hit her neck. Then, a rocket. Finally, all black.

After how many nights of sleeping and resting, he finally woke up to the afternoon sun. Hot, steaming, buck naked, and stinging all over. Not exactly an ideal Sunday afternoon. He stretched his battered body across the bed sheet, yawning his first full breath of air since he found and lost Silvia. He warmed himself up to the bathing sun, the slowly humming ceiling fan, and the still margarita on the table. He slowly steadied himself to sit upright, curling his knees and staring at the mirror in front of the bed. So many scars, like badges of honor forever pinned to his body. One look, and they'll have to kneel down in awe of how many battles he's faced.

Squall just emerged from the shower, still wiping the sweat from her head with her towel, exhaling her first breath of fresh air. She saw Sokoto admiring his reflection and slowly joined in. She dropped her towel and kissed him while pressing their bodies together, and he embraced her the same way.

"Are you ok, kiddo?" Squall whispered.

"Um...yeah..." he said after rubbing his forehead and plopping back down on the bed.

She cuddled with him, "Sorry about last night, I...got wasted in my own juice...again."

He stretched, "It's ok...at least we both got our much needed fresh air, huh?"

"I guess so..." She patted his head and stared at him for a bit. Then, she went off and rummaged her bag, "C'mon. I wanna show you something."

He peeked over her shoulder, "What's is...?" She gave him a picture.

It was a family of four, consisting of a mother, father, and two girls. "My old family," she quietly answered.

"Oh, so you actually had one." Sokoto rubbed the dust off the old picture, wondering why she ever kept it for all these years.

Squall led them back to bed, "Yep...till I saw what my mom did to my dad when he tried to brush my hair...and to me when I tried to save him."

"Let me guess," he quirked at her, "Your mom didn't trust your dad anymore, huh?"

She rubbed her eyes, "Ohhh...he wronged her. Horribly."

"How so?"

She wore a sarcastic look on her face, "Voyeurism. Philandering. Sugar daddy. Not a good combination when you're at the top," as if it were nothing out of the ordinary.

"At the top? What, like Phantom Task?"

"No, this happened waaayyyyy before Phantom Task," she began relating to her days as a very wealthy family, "My mom caught him on his diary, playing the psychopath who mumbles to himself uncontrollably. She didn't do anything until he ran his hands through my hair. Can you blame him, though? I looked like a seductress even when I was a small one."

"And that caused a rift between the family, huh?"

"And me. Even though it is perverted..." she twirled her hair exactly how her father did, "I actually liked the way he cuddled me. Everyone else just wanted to put me up on my pedestal, but for what it was worth, dad knew how to comfort me. When mom chased dad out of the house, I ran after him. And...so did my mom."

"Oh...and that turned out well, huh?"

"If by 'well' you mean 'hair-raising banshee haunting a single host for the rest of her life,' then yes. Very well."

"Oh, boy," he facepalmed himself, "And you've been running since then?"

"Yep. Until I saw his gravestone. They caked him. I never did find out who exactly, though."

"And your mom?"

"She found me and disciplined me real good. Put me through the works until I graduated from middle school. Then she attended the IS Academy entrance exams and-"

"And then you done her in. As revenge for...y'know."

She was shocked, "How...did you know...?"

"Uh...lucky guess?" Actually, he's seen this thing twenty times over.

"Well, I made it look accidental. I fought and fought, and then I took a brutal punch to the gut. I backed against the wall, right where she was sitting front row. She fired a couple rockets, one hit me and knocked me outta the way, the other went to my mom."

"No barrier?"

"Naw. I programmed it to shut down for that one split second." What? Brutal death at the hands of a little child? Pbbttt! That's nothing! You should see this guy I killed using a machete! Damn bastard trespassed onto my lake, I chopped him up into-WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU TWO?!

"Well, at least you had a mom," he looked down, "I never knew mine to begin with."

Squall hugged him again, pressed his head against-CLOTHES! "M told me everything. You got away with piercing her ice cold iceberg." Her what? You mean M's not psycho-killer crazy anymore?

"Naw, it melted the moment you dove in to save her, I think. Twice." Twice? When was that?...

"Mmm...I never do that..." she looked embarrassed to say that, "All I do is kill and use people."

They sat there in silence for a minute. Squall looked down at that picture, thinking of her naivete as a child, unaware about her father's true nature, and unaware of the world around her. She only thought of her father in those moments. The cruelty of her mother got the better of her. Then, she wondered if Sokoto would go down that same path.

It seemed so, because he saw the concern in her eyes and immediately took action, "You look like you need a break from all this." He sprang out of bed and into her sack.

She was still looking down at her picture, "Yeah...yeah, I do," not noticing him when he popped out and threw a dress on her head.

"You need to let loose, forget all your troubles!" he yelled while throwing all sorts of wigs and dresses, "Let's explore the town tonight, and we can plan on our next big heist tomorrow."

"Uh...I'm not sure that's the best-"

"Come on! I got a couple wig diggers right here, just ripe for the taking! What've you got to lose, besides...nothing?"

He's got a point, lady.

The entire day was spent on forgetting about M, Autumn, Phantom Task, and the Infinite Stratos altogether, in favor of goofing off and making the city into their playground. Figuratively, and literally. They roamed the city in their disguises, blending in with the crowd, while concocting a plan to cause chaos on the streets. Every store they hit up, they fondled with the clothing, food, and utensils, turning the malls into a role-playing experience. Every restaurant they ate at, they made massive parties and conversations of the normal womenfolk. Every opportunity to make a show of the slightest bit of boredom was taken advantage of in full. All thanks to Sokoto dragging Squall to every hotspot in Gunma. He made her forget the risk of being discovered. And he somehow made her forget about her entire past.

She actually enjoyed herself. Something her mother never gave her the luxury of experiencing. She made full use of her physical abilities to make the biggest riff of life ever. Even going so far as to climb towers and attract the one woman she wasn't supposed to attract.

"Hey, Blue Star Shooter! Over here!" She waved.

"Well, now I know what M meant by 'taking it too far'," Sokoto muttered before jittering, "MERMAID WOMAN!"

"Ahoy?" Squall quirked before staring blankly at-RUN, MAN! RUN!

"Ah! What are you doing?!" Cecilia screamed at Squa-I MEAN, uh, Manako, "And...however did you get that dress...?"

'Now to unleash my years of frustration and anger,' Squall though before screaming, "Ah, quit your belly-aching and help me set sail, woman!"

"Do you know her, young woman?" Cecilia said to Soko-MAY! May. Why May?

"She just got off from 3 sake bottles..." he answered.

"Oh, my," why is Cecilia intrigued? "And she always acts this wild every time she down a bottle?"

"And drags me in her pace all the ti-" He was grabbed and sent in her pace, "Like now!"

"Come on, kid! Let's hit the beach!"

"Hmm..." Cecilia thought, "This might actually be worth the while." Since you basically got fired, why not?

Because it'd bring back some very harsh memories of when they were just students. Nearly every moment played out exactly as how she experienced it. Don't expect any friendlies, either, because Manako's taking the lead this time. Not really a bad thing.

She dragged them all to the beach to forget about the ongoing renegade crisis.

"Whew! I actually had fun today, kiddo!" Cecilia stretched.

"Me too! I'm a little thirsty, though," May said, "Any ideas?"

"Let's hit up that joint over there!" Manako pointed at the Akina Sports Bar.

"Uh, I don't think that's a good -"

"Last one there wears fish on her bra!" Yep, what have you done.

And what better way to end the night than 20 shots of sake. Don't ask. Sokoto can just hold his liquor, let's just leave it at that.

Squall, on the other hand...

"AND THEN, I SAID, 'YOU DON'T OWN ME! I OWN YOU!' AND HE DIDN'T HAVE NOTHING TO SAY AFTERWARDS! HE DIDN'T KNOW WHAT THE HELL TO THINK!"

...was just obnoxious.

"Lady," he muttered, "What have you been hiding under those sheets...?" He watched Squall and Cecilia throw the entire sports bar upside down, and drive it further into the ground in every which way possible.

"How...how is this possible...?" he laughed. While everyone was kicking up a storm with the recent events, he can't help but wonder if anyone picked him out yet, as he has lost all energy because of the current environment. And when someone kicked up the music...

"Woohoohoo! Let's party!" Cecilia screamed, prompting almost all the women to muddle together and dance. With liquor. Uh-huh. Things are looking bad atop Akina.

Sokoto drank his last martini and waltzed out. He inhaled fresh-"WE WERE IN THERE ALL DAY?!" It's 23:10, bro, "Oh, what's gonna happen to everyone back home?" He can feel the anxiety from within and without; he still has no clue on how to rescue Silvia, Autumn and M are held captive somewhere he's forgotten, and his current guardian is a walking insane asylum. All this because he's been thrown into the fray like a sack of meat in a lion's den. What else could happen?

He sighed. This was an eye opener for him. He realized that he has to keep this family going if they are to have-no, if HE wants to get his sanity back!

-tap- "WAHAHAHAA!"

If the girl behind him doesn't lock him out first. And those eyes...

"What? What're you staring like that for?" Sokoto muttered, as if she could stare right into his soul.

"Are you with that lady in the dress?" The girl asked.

"What's it to you, woman?"

"Well, you're one of the two odd-one-outs," she pointed to herself while slowly walking towards him.

"Look, I don't even know who you are, much less what you're talking about!" He tried to back off, but she swifter around him and squeezed his head under her chin.

"Don't be alarmed when I ask," she cooed.

"Ask what?" He muffled under her arms, "Lady you ain't making an sense right-"

"Mmm...so warm..." Hair sniffer! How dare you, woman?! Is exactly what Sokoto wanted to scream, but he was completely burnt out from having to watch over someone twice his height.

But she eventually released her grasp, and he was flipping out, trying to remove all the cooties from his hair, "Why?!"

Then, in a voice low enough only for him to hear, she said the beloved: "How did someone like you become the renegade?"

Sokoto froze. How did she find out? He covered his tracks from the moment they left the motel, but was there a loose stone he forgot to replace?! What happened?! "What are you doing?..."

"Just playing the observant," she answered while twirling circles around him.

"HUH?" He said before slapping himself, "Wait, wait, wait. What even are you?!"

"Just a girl who's finally gone drunk," yeah, as we will see in the next-

"Yeah, I know that, but who's the what?"

And she stopped short of her nose touching his, "A woman named Kanzashi."

"O...k...Random Clam?" He turned and walked down the mountain road, and she followed.

"What's your deal, anyway?" he asked in disbelief, "why even bother with a bunch of drunken lie-hards?"

"Because I need an escape from life," she stopped to look at the moonlit lake. Its glistening reflection told of something the world has clearly lost and replaced with an intricate fake. At least, that's how she saw the world, "You know, I always wonder how could a world so beautiful go so rotten...How long we've all filled our bubbles with self fulfillment prophecies that we try to force true..."

"Is there a point to all this?" Sokoto was more confused than ever.

"Maybe there is..." she whispered before turning back towards the bar.

"Wait," he stammered, "You're not going to turn us in? "

"Well, not tonight. But I will be required to at some point."

"Huh...and no one else is involved?"

"Dude, everyone else is involved!" She pointed at the nightly woman parade marching into town once more. Among the massive showing was Squall, who remained perfectly undetectable due to her torrential drinking barrage, locked in arms with the enemy. Anti-male chants echoed throughout the streets.

"Uhhhhhhhhhhh..." our thoughts exactly, boy-o.

"There's a hotel over there," Kanzashi pointed, "we can rest there for the night."

"Eh...sure..." And he just went with it.

An hour later, Kanzashi was examining Sokoto's body for potential irregularities to his biological structure, "You never went to a hospital?"

"Never," he proudly proclaimed, "It's in my bones to heal on my own!"

"Huh," she marveled at his resilience, "I've never heard of a man withstanding that much abuse from day 1, and living."

"Well, what can I say? I'm a natural-born...uh...for lack of a better word, renegade."

Kanzashi stared at his physique, "Well, you got me interested in how you operate."

"In what way?" Is what he asked, but this screams deja vu.

"Well, I'm going to run an unorthodox diagnosis on you, and the only method is-"

"Kan," Sokoto cut her off, "My head. It hurts. Whatever you're gonna do, do it before I get a migraine..."

"I'll get right to it, then..." she stammered, "Oh, and renegade?"

"What?"

"You might wanna go somewhere more...remote next time you go on vacation."

And thus did he spend his last night in each someone's arms...and way over the edge.

Unbeknownst to the both of them, however, this session would open him up a very powerful ability.


	3. Still Just Kids

_Part 3: Still Just Kids_

The next morning was a haze. Sokoto slowly opened his eyes, struggling to work the alcohol through the rest of his mind. He kept blinking in and out of awareness just to see if it was all a he finally woke, he found himself in the hotel room, alone.

"Squall?" he called weakly. No response.

He wondered what could've happened, but then he saw a bag of goodies on the table, addressed to him, left by Kanzashi. What went on last night? What else should he have not told her? He grabbed the bag and left the room. "Kanzashi? Squall?" he repeatedly called. Still nothing. No other noise.

Or people for that matter, "Hello? Anybody?" he called as he made his way to the lobby the corner hotel was completely empty, save for some furniture and water. Everything was still.

Sokoto rubbed his head as he tried to process the events of last night. It began with an honest effort to get Squall to forget her worries for a day, and it ended up with them causing a ruckus at multiple outlet malls, fraternizing with the enemy Cecilia, holding a binge-drinking contest and a parade, and ending with a one on one with Kanzashi. But that last part was sketchy. She figured out that he was the renegade, he removed his disguise inside the room...

"Uh-huh," he facepalmed. In a glaring moment of weakness...he did-

"Huh?" he shrugged, but not from the cold air, but the suddenly cold atmosphere. He could feel something build up outside the walls. Was it tension? Feels like anger...a devilish aura moving slowly...turning the corner...and stopping just short of the emergency stairway.

He ducked down and prepped himself to sprint, "In 3...2...1..."

Two rockets crashed through the front and emergency doors. He took off for the exit, running up and flipping over one of the rockets, but their collision caused a massive explosion, blowing him out of the hotel, and smash against the safe house inside the main office. Debris came down and sealed him inside.

He was now trapped, and it won't be long before someone came to relieve him. He quickly checked the bag's goodies. Some anti-IS grenades...huh? A...wrist-shield? This is all to help him survive being turned in? "What is her deal?" he exclaimed, "I can't do anything in this cramp! How do I-"

A very familiar rifle barrel pierced through the debris and shredded the barrier. Sokoto start to feel a fiery aura...and couldn't resist a smirk as he locked eyes with her.

"Hello again, little man," Cecilia hissed.

"Long time no see, FATTIE!" Sokoto crashed a flash bang grenade to a piece of metal behind him. It disrupted everyone'seyesight long enough for him to escape the room, and jump into a occupied lobby. He activated the wrist shield to counter the gunfire. Five IS units, three behind, two in front, twenty-five heavily-armed soldiers, all female. Battle plan set. Someone tried to swing a knife at him but he wrested it from her hands, and proceeded to attack the only attackable weakspot: the guns.

Cecilia recovered from the flash and was once again in a blind rage, "GAH! KILL HIM!"

"Our orders were to take him alive!" a pilot protested.

"Orders be damned!" Cecilia charged her rifle, "I want him brought to me on a casserole!"

Sokoto crashed into a pile of soldiers and relieved them of their guns. He felt something grab him by the shoulders, but there's nothing there! Yet. He ducked down as soon as the sensation intensified. Whatever that was helped a lot; he just avoided a double sword strike from two pilots. The other two opened fire above as he struggled to navigate through the other soldiers. Things got even more hectic as Cecilia charged her rifle again. The soldiers back away as the other pilots closed in to reduce Sokoto's mobility. As soon as she fired, he jumped at the point of impact. The laser propelled him through the lobby, but not before he suffered a brutal gut punch from a pilot.

"He's escaped!" someone shouted.

"But he's weak," Cecilia hissed, "Ground soldiers continue to fire! All pilots in the vicinity, search for the target marked on your radar by yellow dot!"

"Ok...I'm ok...I'm ok...I'm ok..." he panted as he limped through the streets, trying to block the gunfire- "NO I AIN'T-HOLY-" and the traffic. Amidst barely leaping over cars and stumbling over bullets, he felt a harsh aura from above. He allowed a car to knock him out of the street and into an outlet store, narrowly avoiding a stomp attack. He recoiled and tried to steady himself, but the pilot grabbed hum by the shirt.

And again with the familiar faces, three of them, "Remember me, you filthy pig?"

Sokoto couldn't resist another exhausted smirk, "Listen, I'd love to reminisce on our extraaaaavagant-"

"DON'T TALK BACK TO ME, YOU YELLOW YUMP!" she threw him back outside and pelted him with bullets.

"The hell does that even mean?!" he screamed as he continued to block. Behind him, Cecilia and two more pilots readied their guns. Cecilia's drones launched and charged straight at Sokoto. Through the bullet-fly, he managed to draw out the trio's anger by mooning them. They charged straight at him, forgetting about the crossfire already happening across the street, and colliding with Cecilia's group as a result. The soldiers and drones had to chase him down, but he was able to pull off the most insulting of rip-offs using the shield and gun, temporarily stunning the drones and downing the soldiers to escape to the mountain road.

"Heheheh, too easy!" he laughed as he ran up the road, towards the sports bar. "The clearing! I'm almost-"

Super pissed off aura to the left "DETOUR!" He jumped over the rail, and into the forest. He avoided detection by a pilot, but the drones have already recovered, and it won't be long before the rest of the pursuit group catches up.

 **-NAHA POLICE DEPARTMENT-**

The TV was lit with live coverage of the hunt for the renegade. Without thinking, the entire police force put out an all-points bulletin for anyone who fits the renegade'sphysical description, and left the ground entirely. The underground prison was empty, save for the two pilots who sensed the urgency of the police.

"Autumn..." Madonna whispered.

"I know..." Autumn responded.

On the count of three, they swung their legs at each other's restraint device with enough force to malfunction it for a few seconds. They partially deployed the limbs to break the chains, but the devices rebooted, sending them in free fall. They dove headfirst, building enough velocity for the moisture to seep through the cracks, short-circuiting the devices. Then, they finally deployed their units, to Autumn's satisfaction.

"About f****** time!" Autumn shouted.

"No, it ain't," Madoka sighed, "Everything went wrong, as expected."

"Shut it," Autumn blurted, "The sooner we find Squall, the better."

For once in their lives, Madoka seemed to be in agreement with Autumn, "Fine. Lead the way."

They IB'd out of the abyss...only to be greeted by Xia and Mei, two of the Chinese envoy.

"Oh, f*** me..." Autumn hissed.

But Madoka smiled for some reason.

 **-LAKE HARUNA-**

Sokoto barely managed to escape by diving into the water, and off the radar. He knew he had to save energy for the fight ahead, but that brutal gut punch has taken its toll. He barely managed to stay undetected through slow strokes and constant surface breathing. With each stroke, he could feel his body temperature dropping, his bones stiffening. He's been through worse, but his body finally felt the brunt of improper healing.

When he finally resurfaced on the clearing on the other side of the lake, he was exhausted and shivering uncontrollably. He managed to keep his composure throughout the swim, and mustered enough energy to swallow a recovery pill. He felt his body warm up, just enough to allow him fluid movement. He coughed up chunks of last night's food, nearly collapsing. He held it together and stood himself upright-

"Ow, cramp burn..." and felt a very burning sensation all over his body. Only, it didn't come from his body. It came from the ten pilots and hundred soldiers surrounding him, guns loaded and locked. He felt like he was being stabbed with a thousand chainsaws.

One of the pilots stepped forward, "And for the final touch..." and threw a very dazed blonde woman towards him.

"SQUALL!" he ran to her and tried to shake her awake. She just lay there, wearing a goofy smile, unaware of the situation she effectively forced him in.

"She turned a new leaf," Cecilia taunted, "Promised to change her life for the better...in exchange for taking you."

Yeah, there's no way that happened. Her auras are too jumbled, indistinguishable. "You mean, she SMOKED a new leaf!" he shot back.

The trio stepped out, "We don't need to hear from you, penile twig! GET HIM!"

This was it for Sokoto, no possible escape maneuver without getting shot. Too exhausted to run, he shielded Squall from the oncoming knives. But somewhere in the rampage, he sensed...mischievousness? Cunning? What the heck is this-

*SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE*

An ear-splitting, ungodly high-pitched mechanical squeal emitted from his shield, piercing everyone, the pilots, the soldiers, even him! He winced, squinting his eyes and concentrating long enough to catch one last glimpse of the surrounding party. Cecilia tried to fire her shot, but her weapons system has been compromised. She shook off the noise as she looked around. The soldiers were down, and every IS has short-circuited. Her drones had been recalled due to malfunction. She was one-on-one with her target. She charged head on to stab Sokoto, but his shield cranked up the Hertz. They both writhed and vomited in pain, and succumbed to the sound wave and lost consciousness.

One hour later...

Cecilia woke up with a horrible migraine. She felt her hand being guided by a soldier, towards a glass of water. Its cool chill somewhat relieved her head, letting her eyes open slightly, "Ugh...what happened..."

"I don't know," the soldier said, "Apparently his shield had a sound cannon, developed for anti-IS purposes."

"Ugh, where did he get that?" Cecilia asked, still very dazed.

"According to surveillance," the soldier said, "it was handed to him at a beach. A woman wearing a brown wig gave him a seashell."

"That has to be Squall in disguise," Cecilia mumbled, "Where is he now?..."

"Um..." the soldier backed away a little bit, very aware of Cecilia's UK status.

"Hello?" Cecilia opened one eye and tightened its lock on the soldier, "I asked you a question? Are you going to give me an answer?"

"One you won't like..." the soldier stammered.

"So, he's gone." She got the message.

"We have other soldiers in the area-" the soldier got cut off by Mermaid's Tears crashing the tent and firing several shots at Mount Haruna, some barely hitting the sports bar. She stomped loud enough to get the attention of every person still in the clearing, if the random drone fire wasn't enough...

"Where is he?!" she screamed, "I want him decapitated in full public view, not in a spec-ops environment!" Then, everyone erupted in rage and her migraines came back. Splendid.

Didn't help that her IS radioed in some static: "Come in, Mermaid's Tears! Repeat, come in!"

Cecilia gritted her teeth and muttered, "Mermaid's Tears, come back IS Academy?"

"Remain at current location," static, "Reinforcements arriving in 5 minutes!"

"Understood!" Cecilia screamed back before shutting off all comms, "Finally, some progress!" She sighed and fell back on the ground.

Someone rushed to her with a washcloth and asked, "How long until we can finally put an end to his creeps?"

"Not long, I assume."

Well, please hurry up, because-

"AAAAAAAAAGH!" somebody got taint-faced for the third time, "MY FACE! MY BEAUTIFUL FACE!"

The trio were overlooking the entire mountainside, trying to display their displeasure to every search party ever.

"Forget the police, forget the Academy!" one of the women shouted, "Let's go after him by ourselves!"

"And risk everything we have all in the pursuit of revenge?" another questioned.

"At this point, I'd give anything to see him die before our hands," the self-proclaimed leader curled her fists, "We will be the ones to rein in the renegade!"

"And then, we'll have our way with the rest of the world's men as well," one of the women said silently.

And where in all probability is that damn renegade?

Fully bathed in the signal-blocking stench of the sewers, of course! Because, reasons! "Hahaa! There ARE some depths a woman won't...descend...to!" His body is aching, so he stopped to rest on the ledge, listening to the sewage rush past him to who knows where. The mildly toxic air won't give him much fresh air, but anything is better than dealing with the side entourage!

Well, almost anything, "Ok, think. I am all alone, in a sewer. All three of my friends are held captive somewhere, and then there's Sylvia."

Throughout the entire shpeal, he hasn't forgotten about the Silver Streamline one bit. If anything, it strengthened his resolve...if only he strengthened the rest of the inappropriately-named "Phantom Task" before this mess happened. With the weird aura detection ability comes a sense of loneliness, because there's no one around to make small talk, no auras, no voices, no nothing. And he realized that he caused a huge mess on the surface - he just now realized what a mess he made. He thought hard to find a way out. But there was only one way out: get back in and clean house. Meaning he has to go rescue everyone now.

He slammed his fists against the wall, "Is there really nothing I can do?!"

Then another strange sensation, eerily similar to the one he felt in the compound began to envelope him. It seemed to lure him even further into the sewer, most likely to a stealth type mission.

"Oh, there is," he mumbled, "And I ain't gonna like it..."

 **-IS ACADEMY ISLAND-**

"All 6 arenas are reconstructed!" Ichika shouted.

"Good," Houki responded, "Let's get two teams per arena and begin renovations immediately!"

Reconstruction on the main areas have finished, and everyone else has either begun prepping the ISs for the mission at hand, or refurbishing the leftover areas for better equipment or defenses. Which would be great news if it weren't for two things...

"How's our ground team doing?" Yamada communicated over Arena 2's temporary modulus.

"Bad." Thing #1: the punchline.

Chifuyu walked up behind, "How's Cecilia?"

"They've lost the renegade again," Maya sheepishly answered.

Chifuyu punched a wooden post down on several tech junk, "HOW?!"

Several women rushed off to the comms post, but the instructors reassured that everything was okay and encouraged them to stay put.

And it failed. One of the women asked, "Were there any men involved with the pursuit?!"

"Hey!" Chifuyu shoved her head aside, "Buzz off, peabrain!"

Houki looked at Ichika and his team, "Ichika..."

"No," one of the pursuit women responded, "The takedown and pursuit teams were entirely composed of women."

"Let me guess...Gunma," one of the workmen sighed.

"Yep...yep..." Ichika splashed himself with water to try and put himself to sleep.

And then...this...

"How absurd!"

"What are they, a bunch of lazy apes?"

"This is exactly why only women can use ISs!"

The fervor somehow rekindled a hidden superiority complex that came with the IS. And many of the staff took offense to that including Houki, who stormed to the comms post. But the men had to keep their mouths shut for obvious reasons...

"What's gotten into you?!" Houki screamed, "Have you forgotten about why we're even doing this in the first place?!"

Then, the brigade over the mainland...said this:

"Look. I'm only going to say this once."

"We want...all men...to step down from their pedestal...and take their rightful place as slaves to women."

"They abused their power by imprisoning us to a lower place! We deserve to be treated equally!"

"How is that equal treatment?! You want to be treated equally, yet you demand absolute power!"

"If you don't understand our cause, then f*** off, b****!"

"Where are you?!" One of the male staff interrupted the signal.

"Why should I tell you?!" the women screamed before getting hit with a shockwave.

"Who?!"

Right from behind them, a recent IS Academy graduate slapped all of them silly before unleashing her IS and punching them into the next block, "God, I wanted to do that for SO LONG!"

"Have you gone mad?!" Clarissa screamed, "You'll lose your status as a Designated Pilot!"

"Who cares?!" she snapped back, "It's all the renegade's fault! If he hadn't surfaced and wrecked our s***, none of this would've happened!"

And right at those words, all eyes turned to Ichika. He felt something over his shoulder and looked over, only to get caught in their death stares.

"Well?" Clarissa demanded.

"Well, what?" Ichika shot back.

"Aren't you going to say something?!" Nohohon of all people asked.

"Do I get to say something? Or am I gonna get shut off within two syllables?" Ichika shut himself off, resolving to talk to no one.

"What's his f****** problem?" Nohohon began leading the group into a rant.

"We asked him nicely, and then he just stoops us off like-"

"That better not be what I think it is!" Tabane popped from the tree above them.

"Tabane! What are -" they all screamed in unison.

She just snapped her fingers to open a passage to the bunker, "Downstairs. Now. All of you," And shoved them together in front of the entrance.

They just left. With Tabane shoving them all down the bunker. Houki looks worried, but Ichika thinks there's something going on down there, and they've got just the right amount of hatred to test it out.

"He's really testing our patience, isn't he?" A male worker mumbled.

"It ain't our patience he's testing," Ichika sighed as he rummaged through leftover debris.

"You saying we brought this on ourselves?" the worker asked while pointing to a blueprint and some parts

"I'm saying that we should've seen it coming, " He found them...and a bit more. He strapped a small USB to his bracelet and continued foraging for some sign of core development.

 **-KOCHI PREFECTURE, SUSAKI BEACHSIDE-**

For all their contingency plans, this was the most hated one. Kill off nearly everyone in their escape route, and board a ferry to the mainland, while remembering that they are under the constant watch of the whole of Japan. It didn't help that Madoka wore a sadistic smile the whole time, and Autumn damn near hated her guts.

They stopped short of the beach huts when Autumn shoved sand in Madoka's face, which almost caused her to retaliate, but instead let of a restrained growl, "Well? Where are we gonna go now?"

Autumn scanned the beachside. No one here, and the city looks like it's still in low-tech, not enough to draw out IS activity, but could still alert authorities on the mainland.

"Hello?" Madoka demanded, "You have a brain, don't you, Anna?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Autumn shot back.

"Try not to fall behind..." Madoka just shoved Autumn aside and walked towards a motel.

And just like that, the two formed a temporary alliance. Without Squall, whatever happens now...is pretty much their fault.


	4. A Time to Give Up

_Part 4: A Time To Give Up_

Five days went by after the scuffle, and the Empress of Japan has finally declared a state of emergency for the entire country. The population has been up in a frenzy since the renegade somehow outwitted the IS pilots who pursued him to the Akina Sports Bar, and lost him at Lake Haruna. In response, female vigilantes have appeared all over the country and run night time patrols, vetting any man wearing blonde hair and blue eyes. Security has tightened around any and all companies having to do with technological advancements. The Empress herself has issued a statement:

"For too long, this renegade has been a thorn in our side. Now, he has grown into a disgusting disease that cannot be vanquished by traditional means. We cannot allow this conflict to go unnoticed any further. We will maintain our peace with the nations of the world. However, I am asking any and all who are willing to stop the renegade from destroying our country to aid in our quest to-" A TV screen was turned off...

 **-TAMAMURA POLICE STATION, GUNMA PREFECTURE-**

"Ugh...when will it end?" ...by the police woman who is currently interrogating Squall.

"So, this stuff is just water and honey?" Squall lazily said while sloshing around a glass of water and honey, still wondering how she managed to hammer down 30 shots of sake.

"Yes," the policewoman sat down across from Squall, "Well, you were so wasted on booze and vodka that I had to do something."

Squall looked up and sarcastically said, "Nothing like selling out your only boyfriend to his ex-girlfriends, amirite?"

"Gross," the policewoman turned the TV back on.

"I'm just messing with you!" Squall wagged her hand before resting her head on her wrist, "But that little crackpot is so much trouble. I'm surprised I still have any sanity left."

"So, this is all just a ruse?" the policewoman was confused, "To get him of your back?"

"Yeah," Squall laid her head on the table, 'accidentally' spilling the cup, "I figured I was gonna die anyways, so...why the hell not?"

"Well..." the policewoman got her files out, "I mean, we had planned to offer you a position among our ranks?"

Squall remembered her time with the old Phantom Task when she sneaked into Gunma Prefectural Women's University to spy on potential recruits and IS research. Long story short, her mission turned up fruitless, "Really? Me? Go back to the grotty little castle on the high hills?"

"Just think about it," the policewoman tried to fill lofty visions into their minds, "You'll be able to rebuild your faction. Everything you've ever lost, we can get back for you."

But it didn't work. Squall has had her fair share of losing everything to explosions and blowing up everyone else's everything in their faces, and she's had enough, "I think I'd rather die in the flat, thanks."

The policewoman clicked a button on under the table, and opened a door to the room, and two doors to other rooms. "Suit yourself," she said annoyed as she was about to leave.

But Squall sensed her angst and need for reinforcements, "What? You don't wanna know more about the renegade?"

At that point, the policewoman got mad. She slammed her palms on the table in an attempt to shake Squall, only to be meet with lazy eyes. "What else is there to know?" She screamed, "He's just a walking disease-ridden dolt! There's no cure for his stupidity! What could be there for us to discover?"

To which Squall responded with a sing-song voice, "Have you ever wondered how he was able to squeeze himself between those rockets?"

"What?" the policewoman cringed.

"How he seemingly dodged every nook and cranny that you've hidden yourself under, hmm?" Squall looked up with steel, seductive eyes.

The policewoman held her breath. Has someone finally discovered the secret of the renegade, and can reverse-engineer it to work to their advantage, "You know?"

"Oh, it's too rich. Just a bunch of hogwash," or was she just bluffing? Eh, either way, "Too bad you were just leaving."

The policewoman was agitated that someone would keep secrets from her, as if that was new. "Yes. You're right. I was." She rose to leave.

"Well, then I guess you wouldn't be interested in anything I have to say," Squall stopped her at the door again, "After all, you only care about the fact that he has a penis."

"Well..." the policewoman was flustered.

"No, no, no. You go on and enjoy yourself," Squall shooed, "I'll just take a power nap over on that corner."

The policewoman quickly left. Finally, Squall was left alone in the room, and just like she promised, she cuddled herself in the cold corner below the TV. While she dozed off, or at least made it look like she dozed off, she kept thinking of ways to fool them into freeing her. It was obvious to her that they respect her a great deal because she was able to pilot multiple IS units at once, along with the fact that she is a female who rebelled against male tyranny, or something like that. All she has to do is goad them into taking her along on the hunt for the renegade, find him, make sure she kills them before they kill him, and all will be right in the world.

Oh, wait. The Silver Gospel is eons away from him. Oops. She has to delay the inevitable chase for as long as possible, until word gets out that he found the Gospel and made off with it.

After five minutes of silence, the policewoman walked in and sat at the table, with two armed guards right beside her.

Squall rubbed her eyes and looked at them drowsily, "Back already?"

"Talk. Now." the policewoman demanded.

"You realize if you kill me, my secrets die with me," Squall eyes those guns pointed at her, "Right?"

The policewoman stared at her guards for a moment, then shook her head, "Ok! Fine! What is it you want?!"

Squall rose and suave'd her was to her seat. Then, she leaned in so her forehead touches the policewoman's cap, "Two things. One, I want to stay here, in Japan, no questions asked."

"Ok...that's easy to do," the policewoman said nervously.

"And two...I want a complete wipe of my record," Squall pointed a finger at the guards, "Felonies, crimes, charges, records, violations, everything I've ever done, it never happened."

All three of them glared, "And why would I agree to that?"

Squall's finger was now aimed at the guards' guns, "Because behind you are two women with AK-47s whom I can easily use to seal my information forever."

That got them. The policewoman knows she needs the information from her captive because she's been with the renegade. She wants nothing more than to bend her to her will, but this is the leader of what was known as Phantom Task here. She'd rather die than put up with crap again, and she can make it happen.

And Squall knows if her brain if lost, then the hunt for the renegade will be delayed by at least a couple months, more than enough time for the renegade to find the Silver Gospel. She narrowed her gaze at the policewoman and demanded, "Well..your choice."

The policewoman sighed and got up to leave again, motioning her guards to come with her, "We need a moment." They slammed the door, leaving Squall to play the pucker-face challenge with her cup.

"What you need is to get me some sake..." she muffled.

 **-SEWER, UNKNOWN-**

Sokoto had wandered the sewer for way too long than necessary, trying to get used to his brand new ability. Whenever he feels a strange sensation, strong enough to tingle his skin, usually it means that someone is nearby. That meant get away. He had explored the networks in an effort to find an opening to a clearing, only to be met with too many sensations. He stayed underground doing nothing but walking and sleeping, occasionally eating. Now he's at his limit. He woke up with a bad headache.

"Ugh...where am I..." he muttered as he leaned against a brick wall, allowing the sound of the rushing flow of sewage to awaken him. He took one more whiff of sewer air...mixed with fresh pine. He blinked. He surveyed. No air fresheners to be found. Then, that meant he found an opening. He braced his stomach with his arms and ran towards the direction of the smell. It was far more welcoming than some things that he never should've seen, but he'll take it if it will lead him somewhere. He saw a light at the end of the tunnel. Just a few more steps before he remembered that he almost died falling off a cliff. He slowed to a limp in case he ever met that same fear.

Thankfully, he didn't. He was only ten feet off the grass. The tunnel led to a big reservoir, where sewage was being turned into water and electricity. In the mountains. So many questions...

He scanned the environment for anything with opposable thumbs and whirring noises. No auras. This place was automated. Time to step down and set up camp.

Later that night, he sat under a tree next to a small fire, using a squirrel's bone as a toothpick. He laid back, resting his head against a leaf pillow, staring back at the opening he just came out of.

"Man..." he sighed, "if I didn't know any better, I'd say I was trapped in s*** the whole time..."

He looked up at the stars, wondering if he could see his next move in them. He was stuck. The entire country is now hot on his tracks. And without Silvia, or Phantom Task, it would be back to his loner days, only with a bounty on his head.

"Silvia, if only you could see me now..." he muttered before extinguishing the fire. But as he was putting it out, the rising sparks started to swirl around and over him. He traced their path with their eyes, and it led to a very thick forest just beyond the reservoir's field of view. The forest sat juts under a very tall tower, illuminating the night with its numerous spotlights. Sokoto blinked out for a minute, but then he remembered.

Back in the apartment somewhere near Mt. Ogusu, they discussed plans to acquire each of them an IS. The big one, the Silver Gospel, was held up somewhere in Shibuya, currently being experimented on by a joint team from Japan, China, US, Israel, and Palestine. He has to get in there, retrieve the Gospel, and get as much info on everything else as possible. The Silver Gospel was the younger sister of the Silver Streamline, meaning if there was any chance to rescuing Silvia, it would be through Silver.

After that little revelation, Sokoto lept to his feet and darted towards the forest.

 **-IS ACADEMY-**

For two straight days, Tabane and her team have been hunkered under the bunker, developing an algorithm to counter the Silver Streamline's defensive wall. The wall has been rewriting its code every second, and Tabane has taken extensive note of how it is rewritten. Countering it is the hard part, as the Streamline learns everything it was fending off, and rewrites itself to protect from future attacks. But they still kept trying.

"Come on!" Tabane scratched her head after attempt number 495, "What aren't we doing?!"

"We're doing everything we can to break through the wall," one of the women said, burying her face in exhaustion.

"It ain't helping one bit!" Tabane slammed her hands against the Streamline's left arm, "It's too smart for one person, I can tell you that much!"

And within that one instant, Tabane realized her solution. She hopped back to her laptop and began crazy-writing code.

"What are you saying?" a helper asked.

"It has to be a coordinated attack, though," Tabane remained focused on her computer screen.

"Meaning?" the woman was confused.

"It's a five-pronged attack," Tabane copied the code to five more files, "and we all have to be exactly one millisecond apart from each other." Then, she rapidly moved them to five flash drives.

"Are you kidding?" someone shrieked, "What are the odds of us dismantling the core?!"

"Better than our chances of catching the renegade without it," Tabane said while stuffing her helpers with the drives, "And I'll take anything above without it."

Someone else clenched her drive and stuffed it into her laptop, "We have to try," she said before giving the order, "Everybody in position."

The helpers took their places and inserted the drives. They opened the file and moved it to the core systems program. Then, they readied their copy of the algorithm and activated it. The Silver Streamline sensed it and prepared to fight against the algorithm. Once the signal was received, everyone in the room froze to await the final call.

Tabane peeked at the others' faces. She inhaled, "Ready?" All of them nodded, then turned their attention back to the Silver Streamline, which was humming in anticipation.

"Right," Tabane initiated the program, "I'm charging the algorithm again."

She launched the algorithm, and the Silver Streamline prepared its defense again. All the helpers' monitors lit up, and their hands readied to enter in the sequence displayed. Tabane continued to clack away at her station, while the Streamline tried to fend off the hack attack. It was a full ten minutes before she found a hole in the Streamline's wall.

"Now!" she screamed. Somehow, the helpers hit their keys in the exact sequence at the exact designated times. The Streamline couldn't keep up with the timing. They punched through the firewall, and delivered the virus code through to the main core.

Tabane proceeded to install the virus into the core's main component, "Almost there!" She signaled everyone to start overriding the security settings while she worked on completely wiping the system's memory. The Streamline continued to rewrite code, but it was already too late. It was repeatedly being countered by the others alone. It had no more resources to devote to protecting its inside info.

"Got it!" she said as she latched the source code onto the mainframe and initiated a factory reset.

Suddenly, an ear-splitting screech resonated throughout the island. Everyone covered their ears to try and shield themselves from the noise. Everyone except Tabane, whose nanomachines rendered her immune to everything except physical attacks.

"AAAAAGH!" one of the helpers quickly succumbed to the high pitch and fainted, foaming at the mouth. Tabane noticed this and quickly deactivated her laptop, sealing any exits and entries from within, leaving her code trapped within the core.

"That noise!" another helper tried to hang on, but slowly fell ill to the noise, "How high can it go?!"

"Hold on!" Tabane typed even faster to speed up the wipe, realizing that one more wall had to be broken. She quickly inserted another flash drive and activated the program to distract the Streamline away from the core. The noise was toned down, indicating that some of its resources went to stopping the outside threat, leaving the inside threat wide open. With one last tap on her keyboard, she activated the program, and in one instant, the noise stopped.

Everyone looked up. They slowly uncovered their ears. They only saw a dim light emitting from the Silver Streamline. It was a small message:

USER OVERRIDE. FACTORY RESET 27%.

"We...we did it..." the helpers slowly said before it got to them that there is no way to restore any of the default settings that may have remained in the IS.

They all jumped for joy, "We did it!" Half of the staff ran outside to tell everyone the good news, while the other half washed the blood out of their ears.

"I can't believe it!" someone said, "We wiped the core clean off!" as the message now read, FACTORY RESET COMPLETE. PREPARING ZERO SHIFT.

"Good. Now comes the hard part," Tabane sudenly plopped multiple tech junks on the table and attached wires to the Streamline, "I gotta outfit with the latest data and bring it up to speed on who its real opponent is."

"Wait...who gets to use it?" one of the helpers asked.

"I will..." Tabane responded while finalizing the setup process, "but I'm only going as a last resort."

They suspected something, "But, wouldn't it be wiser to-"

But Tabane just shooed them off, "Go on! Leave me alone to my masterpiece!"

They just ran off and left her alone. Once the room was settled, Tabane let off an evil grin. She cracked her knuckles and began working her magic.

 **-SUSAKI PRINCE HOTEL, KOCHI PREFECTURE-**

It is an absolute wonder how Madoka and Autumn have gone without clawing at each others' scalps. The more they keep hearing about the renegade on TV, the more they want to dig their fingers into their brains and scratch it until they're somewhere else. Madoka actually tried that and hilariously failed. They managed to stay out of each others' personal boundaries and not cause any ruckus that might alert them to their position. All it's done however is increase the tension.

Autumn came home from shopping while Madoka stayed locked in her room.

"Ugh! What a day!" Autumn screamed as she plopped down on her futon. Still no response. She just grabbed the remote and flipped through the channels, hoping for some sort of release from this uneasy air. Usually they would be out and about, making a mess of the IS world as they traveled, but for the first time ever, they're stuck. She can't even get mad anymore Thanks to the renegade and Squall going AWOL, they don't know what to do. Autumn just sat there, while Madoka does who knows what.

At least until she opened the door and came out looking like the rings girls.

"Huh-HOLY-" Autumn freaked out, "The hell's wrong with you?"

Madoka didn't say anything. She just slumped over to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water. Then, she sat down on the floor...next to Autumn? WHAT THE HELL'S GOING ON HERE?!

Even more bizarre is them watching a horror movie marathon. Two and a half movies in, and Madoka of all people decided to pop the question, "You ever look at the stupidest piece of work every and think, where have I seen this thing before?"

"Get off it," Autumn nudged Madoka with her knee, "We're supposed to lay off until those two can figure out how to escape..."

"I know, but..." Madoka never knew how to finish that thought. And then comes the scene required in every horror movie in existence: where the protagonists huddle together before the final fight and reassure themselves that everything will be okay, then they go in together...only to get massacred because they instantly went back to survival of the fittest instead of staying with teamwork.

Autumn threw her hands up in irritation, "Ok. I'll bite. But only because I'm thinking the exact same thing. What did he do?"

Madoka just stared at the TV, watching the blood flow before she finally answered,

"When my parents neglected me, I ran...I ran as far as I could, but then these drunk-asses start raping me."

Autumn just buried her face in her knees, "I didn't ask for your biography, idiot..."

Madoka couldn't hear her; she was far too drowned in her own memories, "Before they could do it, this kid with chicken-hair starts killing all of them. Heheh...A little kid...beating up three grown men."

"Or a punk'd lady." Autumn interjected.

"Huh?" Madoka snapped back at Autumn, who freaked out a little bit (M alwas had extreme flexibility...)

Autumn scratched her head, trying to remember the events in which a kid with chicken-hair appeared, "The only thing I remember is beating up a bunch of guys who try to gang-rape me...and getting pelted in the forehead by-" Then, it suddenly hit her. He rammed his elbow into her head and rammed it into a lamppost. When she finally came to, she awoke in an empty barrel house, where the renegade, as a little boy, sat four barrels above her. She scratched her head, wondering what happened a few hours earlier. Then she suddenly pointed a finger at him, yelling, "IT'S YOU!"

"Aye," little Sokoto said, "It is me."

"What the hell did you have to do that for?!" she griped, "I could've had them on the ropes!"

"Oh, you did," he help up what used to be ten dongs, now ten roasted sausages. To her disgust, he ate one.

"What?" he swallowed it, "Food is food!"

"Do you even know what they were doing before you butt in?!" she shrieked.

"Why do I need to know?" he said as he dragged her to a clinic. And that's where the memories ended.

"Yep," Autumn hissed through her pre-puke, "It's definitely him."

And they continued their movie marathon, hoping for a change in atmosphere once the final movie concluded.


	5. Loneliness

_Part 5: Loneliness_

 **-OKURA HOTEL, NIIGATA PREFECTURE-**

The next morning, the pursuit team was packing up. After they lost the renegade, the team members crashed at a hotel and waited for command central to issue their next orders. But they never came; all of it was drowned out by the hysteria the renegade caused. So, they ended up making a siesta out of the hotel, trying to vacation their worries away. And for the most part, it worked.

It would have completely worked had it not been for one constant, incessant blonde woman making a big deal out of losing the renegade again. The sheer weight of the failure never left her atmosphere, and her maid had to hear it all. For the entire week, she tried to comfort her mistress, even going so far as to offer her a bottle of wine to let it go. She downed two liters that night.

By week's end, Chelsea was sent back to her room, hammered. When she woke, the sun stung the wax out of her eyes and slowly forced them open. She can't remember how much she saw everyone else drink; she fainted from the mere sight of every single patron downing upwards of 10 shots, sometimes more!

"Oh, my head..." she rubbed her head as hard as she could to try and relieve the pressure. She squinted her eyes to block the sunlight. When she finally came too, she realized that she trashed her own room. Clothes everywhere, foul odors abound, and why's her crotch feel funny? And numb?

"What have I been doing last night?..." she mumbled as she went straight for her street clothes and washed her face. During that long soak, she was reminded of Lake Haruna, where the final standoff against the renegade ended in failure. Just before the screeching noise halted the fight, she caught one glimpse of the renegade's pupils.

She closed her eyes to take in the scene. "Those eyes..." Bright blue, widened, full of wonder, and ready to take on the world. Eyes that have not yet seen the horrors of the world.

"They are definitely not eyes of destruction..." she said as she mounted her uniform. It was just business attire, miniskirt, stockings, blazer, but she couldn't forget the maid headband. She smiled as she struggled to discern her appearance as wither an attendant or a cosplay dropout. But she didn't smile for long, as she heard her master talk very loudly on her cellphone, her voice piercing the shredded hotel door.

"Yes, I'm aware of the consequences of my return," Cecilia stated.

"What the-?" Chelsea snuck behind the wall, listening in on what sounds like a return trip. Why would she want to return to England?

"Well, just don't tell them that bit!" Cecilia shouted at her phone before hearing some more talking.

"So have I, which is exactly why I'm leaving," she said.

Chelsea took this to mean that she has had enough of the wild goose chase captivating Japan. Or, she would like to, were it not for a lingering suspicion that-

"Put out a resolution through Parliament, then," Cecilia commanded, "Recommend that Great Britain leave Japan the hell alone."

Nope, it's more than that. Chelsea was more determined than ever to get to the bottom of this, even if it meant turning against her own friend.

"I'll see you in three days, then," Cecilia hung up, and dragged her luggage out of the hotel. Chelsea waited until her master is out of her sight to make her way down. She made it to the lobby before she realized that Cecilia was nowhere to be seen. She checked her radar. Cecilia was already halfway to Niigata Airport.

Someone recognized Chelsea as Cecilia's right-hand woman and asked, "Hey, what's happening? Where's she going?"

Chelsea looked towards the main entrance. "Milady is leaving Japan," she solemnly said.

An officer who took part in the capture mission screamed, "She's abandoning the mission?!" Suddenly, a few more women approached Chelsea.

"Seems like it-" someone else said.

"I know you're her maid and all," another grabbed Chelsea's hand and begged, "but can you tell her not to leave?! We need her help!"

Chelsea closed her eyes, inhaled, and confided in herself, "I shall try."

She called Crescendo and high-tailed it to Niigata Airport.

Ten minutes later, she recalled Crescendo and darted inside to the front desk. She immediately saw a blonde woman with hair drills and ran up to her.

She grabbed her shoulder, "May I have a word with-" and turned over a cosplayer, wig fallen to the dirty tile ground.

"Uhhhhhhhh..." he said, stunned. She left him alone to endure the seething contempt of the women.

She went to the front desk, "Excuse me. Do you know if Cecilia Alcott check in today?"

The receptionist checked her records online, and one line materialized on the overhead projector. "She just purchased a ticket to Incheon," she said, "She should be down Terminal 7. Why?"

"I've been given explicit orders to prevent her leave," Chelsea blurted out while shoving her ID in the receptionist's face, "Excuse me."

She bypassed security just when the sensors and seers told her it was okay for her to visit. The receptionist just held Chelsea's ID, staring at a maid who was running for someone else's life.

"I thought she wanted to leave?" she silently said.

"Brits..." her co-worker quipped.

Cecilia was walking out of the restroom to her seat in the waiting area. She looked around at all the people she will leave behind, and she wasn't impressed. She closed her eyes and decided in her heart that this was for the best. She opened her eyes and took two steps be-

"Stop!"

-before she saw her maid come all this way to see her off. She was surprised, but not in a good way. There was only one reason she could think off why her maid would come here, and she would not have any of it. They stared down each others' eyes for a good ten seconds before she broke the silence.

"What are you doing here?" Cecilia demanded.

"Wondering where are you going, is all," Chelsea responded.

"Home. That's where I'm going," Cecilia closed her eyes and sat down at her seat, "And I suggest you do the same."

"Wha...Now?" Chelsea walked towards her, "When the country needs you during a time of crisis?"

"HAH!" Cecilia glared at Chelsea, "The only thing this country needs from me is to kiss their eroding feet!"

Chelsea could not believe what she just heard. Di her own master, an ambassador of Great Britain to Japan, just say the beloved? Yes, she did. She shook her head and continued, "Weren't you the one who suggested we lure the renegade?"

"Yes, I was," Cecilia shot back, "And look how it turned out!"

"Milady, I know you're not just focused on the renegade!" Chelsea protested, "What you're doing...this is highly inappropriate!"

"What's inappropriate is our presence here in the first place!" Cecilia screamed, "I tell you now, if we just went along our merry way, we would never have had to deal with Chicken-Hair in the first place!"

Chelsea got mad. "You didn't come here because of the renegade," she growled.

"Stop telling me what I already know!" Cecilia leaned back into her seat and folded her arms, "Big waste of time, this tour."

"Tour..." Chelsea said rather loudly, "I thought you called this a honeymoon."

Cecilia twitched, "What?"

"I was there at the meeting back in Canterbury," Chelsea recalled, "I overheard your conversation with the Archbishop. She made word of Ichika planning to propose to Houki once the Kendo school stabilized itself, and you cringed at the very notion that someone other than you would have the gall to lay their hand on your dearly beloved."

Cecilia's fists started to tremble. She was struggling to keep herself from sweating, "Chelsea...stop what you're doing."

"Why should I, when I was the one who objected to this so-called "tour" of yours!" Chelsea still rambled on, to the point where she was in Cecilia's face, "But I went along because I cared about you, because I didn't want to see you get wasted on fermented wine and ogling whiplashes!"

"Chelsea..."

"What? Can't face facts? Can't handle what you're becoming? I may not have been as privileged as you are, but at least I know how to refrain from pining over Ponyboy."

Cecilia slapped Chelsea back several feet. She glared at her now former maid with cold, empty eyes, drones deployed, "What...did I just hear...COME OUT OF YOUR MOUTH?"

"Are you deaf, too?" Chelsea rubber her bruised cheek before partially deploying Crescendo's arms and sabre, "Here. Let me cleanse your every orifice!"

Cecilia screamed and commanded her drones to open fire at Chelsea, who easily blocked all of her shots. She then motioned her drones to charge forth and attack. Chelsea could've forced the drones to fire on her, but too many of her nerves have snapped to allow for any tactical play. No, she decided that she has to make her master see the error of her ways, and the only way she knows how is to sidestep every single attack and let the collateral damage accumulate. Just a few seconds of easy moving did Cecilia call back her drones and summon her Blue Pierce. She fired on Chelsea and easily knocked her back with two shots, and on the third shot she crushed her defense and crashed her through a wall into the restroom.

Chelsea grunted and freed her off-hand, just in time to dodge a drone tackle. It stuck itself to the wall and blasted it to free itself. She quickly struck it down, but she was hit with a rifle butt and shot all the way into the lobby. She protected the rest of the people from the shrapnel, but struggled to maintain herself, as she only went partial deployment, while her master went full-on Mermaid's Tears. And yet, she still refused to rise to her level, only raising her sword once more.

Cecilia fired her drones on Chelsea, who is easily sidestepping their shots. She charged straight at her and attacked, using her rifle as a bludgeon. Slowly, she overwhelmed her with shots and strikes, finally landing a crushing hit on her stomach. She focused her fire on that area and hit with a three-pronged laser, throwing her out of the airport forcing her to fully deploy Crescendo to avoid injury.

Chelsea slammed into several cars before stabilizing herself in midair, for a second. Cecilia did not let up. She hovered in front of the lobby and sent her drones after her. Chelsea evaded every single shot, but could not protect herself from Cecilia's shots at all. She wasn't trying to. If she would allow anyone to harm her, it would be the only person who had forgotten about their friendship in an instant. It wasn't long before Chelsea crashed through the giant awning and crushed several occupied cars. She struggled to raise herself to her feet, but Cecilia stomped her back down and pinned her.

"I thought you've changed!" Chelsea screamed.

"I thought I knew you," Cecilia hissed as she fired point-blank range.

Back at the entrance, a small twin-tailed girl took notice of the mayhem.

"What is happening?" she said before her eyes caught a familiar figure in the sky.

"President Lingyin," her attendant said, "We really must be going-"

"And leave these people in the danger zone?" she protested, "No, I gotta do somethi-" Right before she could call her IS, her bracelet picked up their ongoing conversation during the heat of the moment.

"I know you wouldn't stop acting so dickishly stubborn!" Chelsea said as she traded blows with Cecilia, "I thought your parents' death would straighten you out!"

"What do you mean by that?" Cecilia shouted as she pushed Chelsea against a pillar. She fired a laser, but instead of hitting the Crescendo, it hit the support columns. Chelsea escaped before the giant awing came down.

Lingyin called her Shenlong and caught the roof just before it crashed, "Y'know what?!" she grunted under the weight and the off-center balance, "Why don't you drive the rental and I'll follow you?!"

"Yep, good idea," her attendant said as they both made haste.

Meanwhile, Chelsea was holding the drones at bay, but Cecilia was hot on her trail, still firing nonstop until one of her shots hit a car. That car flipped off the freeway and into a convenience store, exploding onto a very busy intersection. That little incident just cost them about ten lives. But it didn't matter to her. She was lost in blind rage. Chelsea led her down to that same intersection. The two stood each other off before Chelsea spoke up.

"My parents died too, but they were their attendants as well, born not only to serve, but to protect!" she turned around, "Look at all this! This isn't what I singed up for! Is this what you want the world to look like while on the hunt?"

"If you'd have taken the shot like a woman, this wouldn't have happened," Cecilia snapped, "Isn't your job to cover up for my mistakes?"

Chelsea raised her sword, "How am I supposed to cover up for this?"

"So, what of it?!" Cecilia unloaded a fully charged laser onto Chelsea, who held her sword out to block it. It deflected the blast in two and smashed through the street's buildings.

"I should be thankful I'm not privileged as you!" Chelsea swung her sword down and released a shock wave, stopping the laser completely and hitting her master smack dab in the face. The two drones snuck up from behind and blasted her.

Cecilia caught wind of what Chelsea said before her laser was silenced. She keeled back upright and prepared to blast off, "Privilege? You think this is a privilege?!" She activated her thrusters and flung herself at Chelsea. She fired nonstop on her way to her target.

But Chelsea somehow saw her and forced her sword onto her neck, taking a drone and slamming it in her face, "Privileges, all of them!" She kicked Cecilia away and charged right at her.

Cecilia had trouble with her drones after that last exchange. She re-positioned her drones onto Chelsea's back and ordered them to just keep firing. Chelsea stayed in her sights, continuously deflecting every single shot at her, regardless of the collateral damage. Cecilia rose high in the sky and unleashed her Gatling mode. Chelsea just IB'd straight through the flurry of bullets, but she knows she got hit with several of the drones' shots. She can't keep this up much longer, lest she lose her shielding. She waited until she was within striking range, and flew high past her. Cecilia backed up a bit to avoid impact, but she was caught in her drones' crossfire. She defended against the fire with her arms, but she couldn't see Chelsea hammering down her saber straight on her head. They both went down.

"To have people under your control!" Chelsea screamed as she struggled to maintain a hold on Cecilia, "To command a signature trademark of the future! To speak your mind and have the entire male gender bend their backs towards you and allow you to use them as a f****** staircase!"

They slammed right on top of a park fountain. Cecilia collapsed under the crushing strike of Chelsea's blade.

Chelsea picked up one of her drones that crashed with them, "HOW THE F*** DO YOU GET MORE PRIVILEGED THAN THAT?!" She again stuffed it in Cecilia's face and knocked her back several yards, through some trees, and smacked into a giant wooden wall.

Cecilia slammed her fist. She couldn't believe that her own subordinate would betray her like this, upstart a commotion like this. Even though she herself was the cause of it, she blamed Chelsea for their poor performance against the renegade. She glared at the lone fencer, standing atop the broken fountain. They shared the same glare, same tattered outfits. The only difference between them is their reputation, of which Chelsea has next to nothing to worry about.

"You think your duty is to yourself, and yourself alone," Chelsea ripped off her ruined blazer and wrapped it around her left bicep, "But I'll bet the renegade would have something different to say!"

"SHUT UUUUUUUP!" Cecilia screamed as she charged straight at Chelsea, rifle ready to bludgeon her to death. She struck at her former maid, who blocked it with ease, but could not maintain the same strength in holding on.

"What the hell is up with your self?" Chelsea grunted at she slowly knelt to the ground.

"Shut up shut up shut up SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUP!" Cecilia jumped and activated her thrusters. The sustained force of the rockets slowly crushed Chelsea, breaking the ground beneath her. Once the fountain was completely destroyed, so was Chelsea's shield energy, as her sword broke, the rifle butt came down on her head, smashing her Crescendo, and the park square, to pieces. Cecilia then flipped her rifle over and began charging her final shot.

"Hey, drill bit!" Lingyin suddenly shouted from behind.

Cecilia snapped back to her senses and surveyed the area. She was shocked at how much damage their little scuffle has caused. The park was trashed. The airport was trashed. People got hurt thanks to her temper tantrum. And as expected, the local authorities have arrived on the scene, guns pointed. She didn't know what to say. She meant to do everything. She only wanted it between her and Chelsea, and yet...then, it dawned on her.

Chelsea meant for this to happen. She knew Cecilia would be hot-headed when it came to anything concerning Ichika, or any male IS user. She knew she wouldn't let it go because it's the birthplace of the IS. Add to that her excuse for stopping her tour to see her "dearest beloved," and there you go. One piping hot mess for her to clean up should anything go wrong. And it was destined to go wrong.

The authorities put Cecilia under arrest and handcuffed her to a park bench. They asked her questions about how she lost control and went on a rampage, and knocked her own maid unconscious. When she mentioned how the renegade infected her mind and caused her to lose her senses, the policewoman immediately tore her ticket up, removed her handcuffs, and let her off with a warning. The rest of them took Chelsea to a local clinic. And Lingyin dragged Cecilia over there after the mess was cleaned up.

The doctor told them that the worst thing Chelsea suffered was a concussion. Otherwise, her injuries were minor, and she'll be checked out the next day. They decided to stay and try to talk things over. After sitting there for half an hour doing nothing...

Lingyin swerved her head between Chelsea and Cecilia. Neither one of them made eye contact. Cecilia just sat there twidling her fingers, and Chelsea cuddled her pillow, staring at the ceiling. "What is going on?!" Lingyin couldn't take it, "Th-this isn't at all how I wanted the reunion to go! Cecilia, I thought you weren't supposed to come here until next week!" Nothing. Cecilia just sat there staring at her fingers. "O...kay," Lingyin said, "Chelsea! Why's she acting like this?! I know this isn't something the renegade caused-"

"Will you shut up about the renegade?" Cecilia hissed.

"You didn't come here because of him," Chelsea murmured.

"What do you mean?" Lingyin asked.

"Huang...Don't...you...dare..." Cecilia tried to force them to stop the conversation, but Chelsea disregarded her master's rules about secrets.

"Ichika bought a ring with the money he earned from his dojo," she blurted, "and in one month's time, he'll propose to Houki."

The whole room generated a tense atmosphere. Cecilia and Lingyin had menacing thoughts about confronting-

"And therein lies the exact reason why I'm abandoning your self-righteous mission," Chelsea interrupted, "I recognize you have feelings for him. But those feelings have lost their authenticity long before the renegade appeared. They are feelings of competition. Those feelings will hurt whoever is nearest to you. There's something bigger than Ichika right now, that's what you don't understand."

"But..." Cecilia tried to speak up.

"Don't even," Chelsea stopped her. She wouldn't let her speak until she was able to move on with the mission. And judging by the look in Cecilia's eyes, she will not move on. Chelsea sighed.

"If you want to go back, go back," she said, "If you want to stay here, stay here." At which point, she got up and put her shoes on, "But you'll do it without me." She started for the door.

"Wait! Where are you going?!" Cecilia demanded.

"I've been with you all these years because I'm your friend, and you are my friend..." Chelsea reflected back on this past battle, "but I will not sit by and watch you destroy yourself whilst someone else is actually destroying something!"

Cecilia interpreted this as an abandonment, "So...you choose your own petty cause over our future?"

"IT WAS YOUR FUTURE, ASSWIPE!" Chelsea threw a bracelet at Cecilia's forehead.

It was full of charms and knickknacks all too familiar to her. She looked up and saw her maid already grabbing her bag, "Ch...Chelsea...why...?"

"Because I quit," Chelsea stormed out of the room, leaving two of the biggest names in IS alone, completely dumbfounded.

"Please tell me that did not just happen," Lingyin said after she managed to process the current events, "Cecilia, please tell me she did not just leave you!"

Cecilia closed her eyes, and inhaled, "Well, what can I say?" she sighed, "She's made her choice."

"No, no, no!" Lingyin protested, "That's not right!" She bolted out and ran after Chelsea, leaving Cecilia alone.

She stared at the bracelet she caught. She rubbed her fingers against every crease and trinket used to assemble this little gadget. And then the memories came back.

She remembered a time five years ago, where she was hard at studying for the IS Aptitude Test while Chelsea was sewing her school uniform. Cecilia decided to take a break and she how it was holding up. She noticed something made out of crystals and gems beside the sewing materials.

"What is that?" she asked.

"It's a friendship charm!" Chelsea held it up to show her.

"Why that of all things?" Cecilia asked, taking the bracelet and staring at every angle.

"Does it not suit you?" Chelsea wondered.

"It does," Cecilia marveled, "I was just wondering, it looks so unusual."

"It's pure crystal," Chelsea bragged a little, "Diamond is too hard to break."

Cecilia suddenly clasped Chelsea's hands together and looked her in the eyes with a cheerful smile,

"No matter what happens, maid to master, we're friends above all else!" she stated.

Chelsea hugged her master, "Thank you, milady!"

"I'll never get used to hearing that..." Cecilia sheepishly said.

But then came a time when she got used to hearing it, and slowly devolved her friendship into...this. She clenched the bracelet and looked out the window. She saw Lingyin and her group try to convince Chelsea to stay by their side, but she sharply withdrew her hand from Lingyin's. She walked off in the other direction, while the others just threw their hands up in annoyance and let her be. Lingyin got everyone back in the rental limo and headed off to try and find a way to IS Academy.

"Fine," Cecilia closed the curtains and left the room, "I'll rebuild the Alcott name by myself."

 _Caught in the middle of an interpersonal war, the President of China makes her entrance into this game. On the outside, morale is at an all time low. But something is brewing on the inside to force the major players to look deep within and find their true allegiance. However, love is not her allegiance, as she has come with an ulterior motive._

 _Both Phantom Task and the IS Representative Candidates are running out of time to stand by and sulk, as the renegade is on the move, following a trail to his next mission. And watching every step of the way is the only other person to share a personal connection with Sokoto._

 _The mission to rescue the Silverio Gospel, on the next Infinite Stratos...Virus._


End file.
